11 January 2024 , 09:10
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A British Gas customer has said her home life descended into an "absolute nightmare" after being left with no heating or hot water over winter.
Kaley Brooke, a 34-year-old care assistant from East Hull, had been struggling with a faulty meter since April 2023 that kept shutting off her thermostat. When she tried to switch supplier, she was wrongly told she owed over £500 and couldn't leave.
After losing access to hot water, the mum had to shower at other people's homes and use electric heaters. British Gas has now apologised for the delay in fixing the issue and confirmed that there is no debt for Kaley to pay.
The energy supplier said they have reset the meter, restoring central heating and hot water as of January 10. Before the issue was resolved, Kaley told Hull Live: "I'm a care assistant and I'm keeping my head above the water and struggling through the cost of living crisis and all I want is an engineer to come out and I can't get one. It is an absolute nightmare. I've been crying. I've been so stressed."
It's understood that Kaley first reported the problem to Hull City Council in October 2023, who sent its KWL contractors to her home multiple times to reset the thermostat before diagnosing the problem as having something to do with the meter, which they cannot interfere with because it is British Gas property.
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The mum had to shower at other people's homes and use electric heaters (Supplied)Kaley, who pays £50 a week for electricity on a pre-payment meter, said it was incredibly hard to get a British Gas engineer to her flat. She explained: "I have rung them so many times to tell them that my meter is faulty and they need to repair it.."
"The council have come to my flat so many times to reset the thermostat but it will just go off again after an hour or so. I have my five kids here every other weekend and I have had to rely on electric heaters to heat the home and get baths and showers at other people's houses. I tried to leave them and they stopped that saying I owe the money but when I rang they couldn't find the debt."
Kaley mentioned that her boyfriend also tried to contact British Gas customer services due to the stress she was under. She added: "My boyfriend rang them in December for two hours and they promised to erase the debt but they didn't at the time."
A British Gas Spokesperson said: “We’re very sorry for not resolving this sooner for Mrs Southall. One of our engineers has visited the property and refreshed the settings for her electric meter which has restored the heating and hot water. We have spoken to Mrs Southall to apologise, confirmed that there is no debt for her to pay and we’ll be following up with her to discuss a gesture of goodwill”
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